ALAMEDA, Calif. -- When Derek Carr hit Amari Cooper on a 63-yard touchdown pass Monday night in Philadelphia -- after Cooper absolutely torched Eagles cornerback Jalen Mills on a double-move "sluggo" pattern from the right side -- you would have thought the Oakland Raiders would have taken more deep shots as the game wore on, yes?

You would have been wrong.

"They weren't going to let us have another one," Carr said after the game.

And therein, many critics charge, lies the problem. Has a lack of killer instinct undone Carr and Oakland's purported high-octane offense?

Of course, a million times of course, the game has changed. But wasn't the very identity of the Raiders built upon one of the late Al Davis' maxims, that the offense takes what it wants, not what the defense gives them?

And yet ...

Carr, this season especially, has been content to check down or not wait for a play to develop downfield. Perhaps there is no greater example than at the end of the first half in Buffalo during Week 8. Rather than throw a Hail Mary into the end zone from the Bills' 47-yard line, which was the play actually sent in by embattled first-year offensive coordinator Todd Downing, Carr dumped it off over the middle to Jalen Richard, who was stopped at the Bills' 32-yard line.

Against the Eagles, and in a gusty wind, Carr was especially content to throw underneath, especially since he was under pressure most of the night.

Carr faced pressure on 15 of 32 dropbacks, per Pro Football Focus, and he completed just two of 12 attempts for nine yards and two interceptions.

And as ESPN Stats & Information pointed out, Carr was just 3-for-10 on passes that traveled at least five yards downfield in Philadelphia, for 82 yards (63 on the Cooper score). In the second half, though, he was 1-6 for eight yards and had two picks on such throws.

"Especially when you hit a big play like that and tie the ball game up, it kind of just sends a shock into them," Carr said of the Eagles. "They were able to try their best to take those kind of things away. We had a few other opportunities where I was getting ready to throw it and I had to throw it a little early because I got hit on a couple, which is fine. That's part of it.

"We had a couple opportunities, but for the most part, they did a good job staying on top after that."

In October, when the Raiders spent the week in Florida after that Buffalo loss but before they beat the Miami Dolphins, I asked Cooper about the line separating taking what the offense wants, and taking what the defense gives up.

He seemed, well, confused.

"That's a good question," he said after a lengthy pause. "As an offense, you want to attack, you want to be dominant, so you really want to have that mentality that you want to go out there and take what you want. But at the same time, you don't ever really want to make things too hard, so if something is there, you should want to take it. I don't know. I don't know where to draw that line, but that's a good question."

Then did the Raiders offense need to attack more, or simply let the game come to them?

"That's a good question," Cooper said again, this time laughing. "I don't really know how to answer, but I think we should just go out and do our thing and stay within our offense. We have a pretty good O-line, pretty good quarterback. We're good all around."

Just not in Philadelphia on Monday night.

Consider: Oakland began six drives on their own 40-yard line or better against the Eagles and scored ... (drum roll, please) no points on those possessions. As the Associated Press noted, the Raiders became the first team since at least 2000 to pull off that ignoble feat.

"We have to get better," Carr said. "And if we don't, we're going to keep feeling like this. That's not what we want for our fans. It's not what we want for our team, our organization. Everyone deserves better and we have to give it to them.

"We have one game this year to go out and do it and we have to come out fighting."